This invention relates to television program guide systems and particularly to interactive television program guide systems and related processes that can automatically tune a television, or program a video cassette recorder (VCR), based on program selections made from program schedule information displayed on a television or other suitable video monitor. More particularly, this invention relates to interactive television program guide systems and related processes that provide an intuitive search utility for allowing a viewer to locate programs of interest by applying a restrictive search selection criterion and a nonrestrictive sort attribute to program schedule information.
In response to viewer demand, cable and satellite telecasting services have been improving programming variety, mainly by increasing the number of program channels available to their customers. For example, many cable telecasting services now offer several dozen program channels, and it is expected that this number will steadily increase as more cable services replace their coaxial cable networks with fiber optic networks. It is expected that satellite telecasting services also will continue to improve programming variety by increasing the number of program channels available to their customers.
Needless to say, improved programming variety is welcomed by the viewing public, but it does not come without cost. One problem frequently encountered by viewers is that the increased number of channels has made it difficult to quickly locate and tune to programs of interest. Before cable television became popular, it was common practice for viewers to briefly sample the program being broadcast on each of the few aerial broadcast channels that were available in order to select a program to watch. However, this technique, known as "channel surfing," is difficult to do when one has to consider programs on several dozen channels, and it is possible that in doing so, a viewer will miss an undesirably large segment of the program ultimately selected for viewing.
Another concern is that the increased number of channels makes it more likely that two programs of interest will be telecast at any given time. Viewers therefore often find it necessary to record one program for later viewing while another program of interest is being watched. Thus, as the number of channels provided by telecasting services increases, the need for a system and process that simplifies the notoriously difficult task of scheduling programs for VCR recording becomes more pressing.
Over the past several years, television viewers have grown accustomed to a scrolling television program guide that is offered by many telecasting services in the United States. One such guide, known as the Prevue Channel, presents to the viewer (on a channel selected by the telecasting service), a scrolling grid containing program schedule information for each channel offered by that telecasting service. The horizontal axis of the scrolling grid identifies program schedule times, and the vertical axis identifies program channels. Typically, one and a half hours of program schedule information are provided, starting at a current time period (typically one half hour).
The grid format used by the Prevue Channel for presenting program schedule information has been favorably received by the viewing public. Essentially, the body of the grid contains an array of cells, each cell representing a program being telecast or to be telecast on the channel identified on the vertical axis, during the time periods specified on the horizontal axis. The size of each cell (i.e., the cell width) represents the length of the program (spanning one or more time periods).
Although the scrolling grid program guide has proven valuable to viewers over the past several years, it is not an interactive program guide, and therefore, it lacks certain capabilities that viewers would find very useful. For example, the scrolling grid does not have the ability to present program schedule information for telecast times beyond a relatively short period from the current time (e.g., one and a half hours). Also, the grid scrolls at a pace that the viewer cannot control. Thus, it may take several minutes for the scrolling grid to advance to program schedule information that the viewer wishes to consider. Finally, the viewer cannot directly use the scrolling grid for tuning a television to a desired channel or programming a VCR.
Attempts have been made to provide interactive program guides with such capabilities. One system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,121; however, for several reasons, the system described therein has disadvantages. For instance, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,121 allows a viewer to choose a plurality of user program selection criteria which are combined to present a list of programs meeting the combined criteria. This operates to restrict the display of program schedule information only to those programs that meet the combined user program selection criteria. When the selection criteria are activated, the viewer is unable to select for viewing or recording any program that does not meet the selection criteria because such programs would not be listed. In order to select such a program, the viewer must either deactivate the selection criteria, or try a different combination of criteria (or perhaps a single criterion) in order to capture a program of interest within the program list.
Moreover, the approach taken in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,121 of combining user program selection criteria may often lead to an undesirably restricted program listing. In fact, it is possible that no programs at all will be displayed in a list because none meets the overly restrictive combination of user program selection criteria. If the viewer then turns the selection criteria selection off, the entire schedule is made available to the viewer, but in an order defined by the telecasting service (e.g., typically by telecast time and channel). The viewer is not provided with the ability to sort, without restricting, either the full program listing or a restricted program listing in a meaningful way.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes that allow a viewer to apply a nonrestrictive sort attribute to program schedule information in addition to, or as an alternative to, a restrictive selection criterion.
It would also be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes in which the telecasting service can define sets of nonrestrictive sort attributes and restrictive selection criteria that the viewer can apply to the program schedule information.
It would further be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes in which the telecasting service can define different sets of nonrestrictive sort attributes for the viewer to choose from depending upon a restrictive selection criterion applied to the program schedule information by the viewer.
It is important that interactive program guides be capable of presenting several days worth of program schedule information so that the viewer can schedule VCR recording of selected programs well in advance of their telecast times. However, existing interactive program guides do not provide a convenient interface that allows the viewer to quickly select program schedule information for a particular date.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes that provide a graphical user interface for displaying the dates for which program schedule information is available, and for allowing the user to select program schedule information for a particular date.
In order to provide viewers with a full-featured interactive program guide, it is typically necessary to use several different screens, each screen being associated with one or more features of the system. However, it has been determined that viewers often find themselves lost in such systems, without a clear understanding of how to return a particular screen of interest in the system.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes that include a menu that may be invoked by the viewer from any screen of the interactive program guide, where the menu is used by the viewer to navigate through the various screens of the interactive program guide.
It would also be desirable to provide interactive program guide systems and related processes in which the telecasting service could define the available menu choices.